The championship race showdown (4 May)

Today wake up very gancheong, hahaha not becoz suffering from the hangover effects of liverpool winning chelsea in the champions league semis lah, but because today is the championship race of out EEE210 project car mah. Back in nus we are supposed to do this module EE2001 which is make a remote control boat lah but then here dun have mah so we bua chao (play cheat) map to this simplier module lah which basically requires us to make a self-guided car on a white n black track. The timing to pass is 1 lap in 2min. The max marks is 3 laps in 2min without interference. Hehehe we did it the full 3 laps in 1min 51sec that is avg of 37 sec per lap. This is the assessment for our module. For the race itself each team is given 2 tries to run a lap and the fastest of the 2 laps will be recorded lah. The team wif the fastest lap timing will win the race simple as tat.

The top 4 prizes before the race starts.
Winners : 100 pounds cash + 3 bottles of champagne + 3 nice nice plastic plagues
Runner-up : 4 cans of Newcaslte Ale
Third place: 4 cans of some ulu brand beer
Fourth : 1 box of Cadbury chocolates XD

Front view of our car (sensors below)

Closeup marco shot of our PIEZO

Top view of the overall circuit


Actually before the race starts we got callibrate it last friday and our best lap time is 32.9sec but then ah its highly non-reproducable lor no matter how hard we try to callibrate this morning, and we have to settle like 37-39 sec lap time. Before the race starts its really very nervous lah coz we know there are 3 teams that can beat us or rather very close competitors. We are gambling and so are they lah.

To my knowledge the car with the PCB deisgn is capable of 34sec , the one with the analogue closed loop feedback syst is capable of 35sec and the other underdog team is abt 36sec. So as u can see we are like quite underdog of the underdog lah @@

The race started even before we know it le. When its our main competitor the PCB design team's turn, all eyes all fixed on them coz its quite certain that they will do well onli difference is will they break their own and current record of 35sec. Hehee quite strangely when the car started moving it had a v slow acceleration i tot my eyes were playing tricks on me but then when i checked my stopwatch i was shocked coz i know wif this timing they wun even make close to 40sec then shock upon shock their car actually went out of track not once but 4 times!!! i was like confused siah wat happened? But inside our hearts we know that one competitor is out coz per intervention for out of track is a 5sec penalty. We know we got chance a small chance but still better than nthg.

Next up is the analogue feedback ctrl team their circuit is really intimidating man components that i neva even seen b4 anywayz while waiting for our module coordinator to start time we are like cursing them inside our hearts i know its bad but competitions are always liddat 100 pounds afterall mah xDDD . To our surprise and relief their car started off very well wif a nice acceleration but towards the midpoint it actually went out of track 2 times and their lap timing was like 46sec + 10sec so yea out of contention for the champions le but still they are currently leading can u believe it ?? XD hahaaz other teams fare so badly. Anyway after his race i went to ask him wat happened mah coz i tot analogue feedback shld be super stable one. He revealled to me he took a gamble lah coz he use a high speed which he neva callibrated n tested b4 lor but he says its okay lah. Althou he said tat i could see he's quite disappointed lah since his car is capable of 35sec last week w/o going outta track somemore.

The next team is us lor. So yew keng placed the car on the track while i stay by the side to take our own timing. The supervisor will take his also. So we started off quite depressingly when i hear the motor sound i know its not going to make it to the 35 sec mark we wanted. We had our lap time of 40sec on the first try. Each team is given 2 tries and the best lap timing will be taken lor. We decided to change a to a 'newer' set of our used batteries hoping can shave a few more sec. Hehehe expectedly we did well and we finished a lap time of 37sec which means we are currently leading for this championship race. Not a good timing but we know we tried our best and can onli wait for other teams' results le. There are 9 more out of a total 18 teams left. So we are halfway thru to becoming the winners if u put it that way xD

Teams after teams none of them can complete one single lap within the 45 sec mark and more imptly we seemed to be the only team today tat complete one full lap without penalties tat is with intervention when the car goes outta track XD Then came the last team, team 18. I know they had a chance coz our grp n his grp always stayed out late in the labs during the easter break they had a crazy algo which makes the car accelerates n pause the motor and accelerates again so its like quite fast on the average but onli difference is not smooth driving. Their first lap is shocking fast 40sec and tat makes them in second place. Its quite an enormous achievement for them because their car always have tendency to go outta track with tat algo since the easter break so i guess luck was shinning on them too. Then came their second try. They increased the speed which again uncallibrated coz its a do or die situation. This their onli and last chance of the whole race to snatch the champion from us since they are adi guaranteed of second place liao. Its 100 pounds or nthg champagne or beer mah XDDD And off they went. They started off superbly to a pt tat i was quite taken aback coz that sound from their motor it vvv familar its exactly the same rpm that we got the record timing of 32.9sec during our field testing last fri. When their caR approaches the finishing line with 30cm to spare i looked at my stopwatch....my heart sank immediately 32 sec !! with 30cm to go they are going to make it man....OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Suddenly i heard a massive awwwwwwww in the background i glanced up from my stopwatch mah and saw his car going OUTTA TRACK OMG!! i was like suddenly going up on a roller coaster ride man wahhahahaaha we won le we won le !!! they finished the lap in record of 34sec but + 5sec penalty = 39sec woOt we are the champions!! champions !!! XDD hahaahahah super happy man but also quite sad for them ah they came in so close threw in everything they got and so unlucky with 30cm to spare then go out of track. Anyway we cant hide from our estastic emotions hahaha first time i won such competition XD

Our prizes and our champion car XD :P

Posing with our prizes :)


After the race our supervisor approached us saying that the chancellor of the uni of newcastle will be visiting the EE dept tmr so he asked us if we could come down to do a live demonstration of our car to the chancellor and we would get a chance to take a photo with him for the dept photos. hehehe it sounded such an honor tat we cant reject so why not XD

Stayed tuned for more of tmr's pics and the live demonstration video.